Wanderkind
by NabikiB
Summary: She hates Pete's World and Rose finds a way out, she doesn't hesitate and she sure as hell doesn't warn anyone of her departure. She's went back to her universe, but this time, the Doctor isn't about to give up. Any of him. Multi-Doctor involvement.
1. Ancient Home

Summary: She hates Pete's World and the clone married someone else. When Rose finds a way out, she doesn't hesitate and she sure as hell doesn't warn anyone of her departure. Her backpack is a heavy duty one she begged from the TARDIS on that last fateful trip into exile and is filled with all sorts of survival equipment. She's going back to her _universe_, yes...but this time, the Doctor isn't even as much as a blip on her radar.

* * *

_Introduction_

* * *

Periodically, he dropped by of course, for how could She fail to notice someone so far away from her proper time as the blonde woman was? So She brought him sometimes and when the TARDIS did, Rose kept away from the Caves of the people that had adopted her. He finally parked far enough away that he didn't notice when she unlocked the locked door, poked her head in and told the TARDIS to let her be.

"He's betrayed me quite enough times, love. He's not getting another shot at me. Not as the one after my Doctor, anyway. Not happening. I'm quite deliberately establishing another parallel world, if his next form wants me, he'll have to live in my new one. This Earth is Rose's World, because I _deserve to _have whatever peace I can find for myself. I've already given him everything I had to give him and he threw me away...repeatedly. There's nothing left for him,...now leave me alone." She told the ship and darted away, leaving the door closed, but unlatched.

* * *

It was a puzzle that disturbed the Doctor when he got back and caused him to demand answers. He got them, though they broke his hearts, for his pink and yellow human no longer trusted him enough to travel with him and refused to board...with his current form, at any rate.

_He's not getting another shot at me. _

_I'm quite deliberately establishing another parallel world_

_if his next form wants me, he'll have to live in my new one_

_because I deserve to have whatever peace I can find for myself_

_I've already given him everything I had to give him _

_There's nothing left for him...now leave me alone_

The 11th met with the War Doctor and the 12th after that and didn't return to Rose's World in his current body. _Next _body would be something else again, he determined. Humans that wanted to establish a brand new universe needed _help_ doing so...and he wanted to be a part of that. He tried and failed to convince himself that her presence there had nothing to do with it.

* * *

"I'm ready to go, _more than ready._ Rose needs me, whether she knows it or not, believes it or not or even wants it or not." He told his ship as the fires of regeneration took hold of him. "And I _will _be there for her." He cried out as his body was remade into a new one...which had a resemblance to the one he'd just left a bit ago but wasn't quite the same...silently, the TARDIS notified his future self that his last one had just split his Timeline neatly in half, one breaking away from a future with Amy and River and veering determinedly toward Rose's World. There was now a crux there, a many directional multi-fork in the road from which many possibilities could arise.

His future self was a little troubled but couldn't fault himself, not really. It was _Rose_, after all and he remembered quite clearly how _much _learning she no longer had faith in him had hurt...though realizing he'd done it to himself had hurt more, because he'd hurt _her _so much in the process. He looked up at his ship's ceiling. "Wish myself well in our endeavor. Though I have a feeling you're going to find that _that_ you is going to be grounded and have a working circuit for the duration. I think you're going to need it. Dire wolves and wooly rhinos are no joke."

* * *

**Ancient Home**

* * *

Rose worked companionably with several other people getting the carcasses of the red deer they'd just killed ready to be transported back to their cave. It was bloody, dirty, stinking, hard manual labor to prepare a carcass and there were over fifty in the surround trap needing to be processed. Good thing there were many hunters here this time. She worked with her bow over her back, the string diagonally over her chest and belly to keep it out of her way and when the last beast was butchered, she went to the stream with the others to rinse away the bits that had stuck to her, the blood, the smell and the weariness. She pulled a change of buckskins out of her bigger on the inside bag for everyone, that magic bag that never seemed to run out of room or get worn, so that everyone could put on a set of clean, if old, clothes. Nobody wore good clothes on a hunt, likewise, no one wanted to wear bloody things after butchering because that attracted predators that might think you looked tasty. With tamed asses and horses harnessed to the new contraptions that Rose called 'wagons' the product of their hunt loaded in the wagon beds, the People took the meat and hides home.

Rose's World was a neat contradiction in discoveries, they had wolves and wild dogs raised with humans as their pack to help hunt and defend the cave. They had horses, asses and onagers to pull several different kinds of conveyance, travois, wagons and even sledges in the winter months if needed, as well as some kinds of wild goats and a few cattle that gave milk that improved the general health of all. Wagons and animal husbandry had not been discovered in her home universe or on her homeworld until _much_ later in human history.

But that was there and this was here, she did as she wished and directed ancient humans as she wanted her new universe to grow. It had been a good long twenty or so local years since she'd last seen the Doctor, though she hadn't aged at all and to these ancient peoples that just meant she was a stong magical leader and that they were lucky to have her. These primitive folk wanted powerful people in their communities for their own safety. It helped that Rose also took part in everyday work, like the hunt today or working hides or crafting or whatever chore needed doing, if she were the nearest and not busy with another project, she didn't hesitate to put her hand to it and get the job done.

She wasn't overly proud like some of the priestesshood could be at times, though she was as powerful as they if not more so in _some_ ways, if not in others. She was fiercely protective of the People of the Delta, as they called themselves, these widely scattered but loosely allied caves that ran up and down what would one day become the English coast.

There _were_ some things she'd insisted on, shortly after she'd arrived. Upon learning about the raids they'd been considering conducting against a small but well organized group of new comers, she put a stop to those plans immediately.

"There _is_ enough for _all_, there is no excuse to kill another person, no matter how strange looking you think they are or how different their ways are. Humans are too few in the world and there is no need that there should be fighting." She had scolded. "Instead, invite them to join your people and everyone will benefit. With more people we can spread out toward the west, which as all know is empty of humans...the new territory will include whatever ground is between the western most Cave and wherever they are when they find a new cave to live in, plus the same distance _beyond_ that to serve as more hunting and gathering lands. Any livable caves therein will be claimed and used."

The leaders and priestesses had discussed her very wise council, all those years ago, and agreed with it. Getting along was always preferred, if possible.

* * *

It was on the long drive back to the Summer Gathering that she heard it again, that grumbling wheeze that could only ever be just one thing and never mean anything else. She calmed the panicked people with her and then set them to calming the animals.

"_**TARDIS, get your ass away from the animals, you crazy alien!" **_She shouted. "Land near the gathering if you're carrying the one _**after **_the one I don't want near me...but far enough away not to scare people!" She bellowed. "OH and tell your bondmate that _he's_ just itching for a good old slap, will you?"

The noise faded, then sounded again, further away this time, and the odd shape that absolutely _wasn't the least bit_ _natural_ in this ancient world, took up residence on a hill overlooking the gathering. She growled something under her breath as she let loose of the reins a bit and urged the animals back to work.

Raising her voice, Rose spoke to the hunters. "Calm down, people. It's just Doctor. He won't hurt anyone...he's just thoughtless, and I don't know if it were him or the TARDIS that decided where to land that time, so at least one of them is very inconsiderate and both of them are people that you will find to be very strange. One of them looks like a man, the other, she's called TARDIS, doesn't. She is alive and has a mind of her own but she's a lifeform you couldn't ever have imagined of. _Nevertheless_, they will not harm you or your spirit and they are perfectly safe to have around the children." She told them decisively as she chirruped to the horses and got them moving, a snap of the reins over their backs given to hurry them back to work.

She didn't hurry, actually. She got done with her share of storing the meat or seeing that some went to people who's hunting luck was poor that day, saving out a large roast for her own hearthfire as well as some of the liver from one of the yearlings. She's asked that people direct the odd looking stranger man to her travel tent and went to get supper started. She wasn't about to go looking for him, he'd have to come to _her_.

* * *

As the meat began to cook, she ground dried millet in a wide, shallow bowl, making the flour for flatbread fresh with her own hands. Rose Tyler was a long, long way from that London shop-girl he had once known and there was no better time than now to start making damned sure he knew it. She was a strong, capable, independent woman who didn't age, had no family and no one to call her own...so she loved the whole village instead. But she wasn't going to wait for him or hunt for him or try to convince him he needed her. Not any more, for she well knew that path led to misery for her while he swanned off without a care in this or any other world. _**No**_.

No, _this_ time, if he wanted her, he was going to have to _work _for it. She wasn't in a hurry to get supper done, though, not when waiting for that one...not with the gob she knew all his bodies had. She figured that it would take a while before he actually entered her shelter and she was therefore shocked when he entered less than half an hour after the meat was set to roast and while she was forming pita bread to bake on the hot rocks by the fire. Several small loaves of sourdough were already set aside to rest and rise, a bit put aside in a bowl with new dough, covered and shelved out of the way. This was why she kept a few goats, for their milk. She could use the milk to make butter and the leftovers from that for buttermilk or sourdough from the yeast in the milk.

She studied him. "Which?"

"One after. Last me split our timeline, one of me went along as we had been, the other followed you. I _couldn't_ leave our old universe...or your original Earth..._undefended_. But I couldn't leave you alone either. Not again."

"Really? Pardon me if I don't believe you. At any rate, I won't be leaving this world for a very long time, if at all. So, if you want to be with me, Doctor, you'll have to _stay_ here. I once gave you everything I had to give _and you threw it in my face._ So...I won't do that again. Not until I'm sure of you, if I ever am."

"You want courting?"

"I want someone who won't betray me...every fucking chance he gets to do so." She bit out.

The Doctor knelt slowly to settle beside her. "I won't. Last me was unstable, yeah? The me before that wasn't. Right? Leather and grumpy, but solid and real, right? So is this me. In _this _universe, the one you caused to split off, I don't need a bow tie to be cool. I just need you."

"You're the tweed one?"

"Not here...here it's back to leather, actually."

"Buckskin, anyway."

"Same thing."

_"My new life is domestic as hell."_

"I love you, Rose Tyler. I can do that."

"Really?" She stared at him in open disbelief. "_You?_ Of all people?"

"_Yes_. First me ever could ever actually get the words out, that could say that, that **can**, that _will_..._that wants to _be that. Other me, other _this _me? Bow tie me? Has a married couple on the TARDIS. For you? I will be domestic. Well, I say domestic, I mean I will myself be domestic...but not 'a' domestic, yes? A bondmate, _not _a houseboy." He clarified, one long finger raised to make the point. "_**Husband**_."

The mental image of the Doctor..._any _him...as a houseboy caused Rose to duck her head nearly to her knees and struggle to hide the fact she was trying not to laugh, which _scared _him because all _he _could see was a seemingly crumpled form and shaking shoulders.

_"Rose?"_

She rocked back and forth a bit, trying and failing miserably to regain control...how had he gotten to her so fast? Damn it. But she knew when it was hopeless, despite her hurt and resentment, she adored the Doctor and there was no more sidestepping round it. She scooted the dinner preparations out of harm's way with shaking hands and let herself go...laughter pealing forth until she could barely breathe.

"What?"

"You..._any_ you...as a _houseboy_..." She gasped out, "_Ridiculous_...you wouldn't have the first clue how to carry on. Anyway, Doctor, those are _neanderthals_ out there...they're my family and people now. The other kind of human, _my _kind, didn't work out too well, did they? Tore themselves down as fast or faster than they built themselves up, so this time we're going the _other _way."

* * *

He pouted just a bit at her giggles but smiled as he finally spied a bit of tongue poking out from her mouth, firmly lodged between her teeth where it was _supposed_ to be. "Okay. Good to know what I'm supposed to be helping along. I can do that."

"Running interference where needed yes, but mostly, on the slow path, in tents, on the ground, in the caves. Understand this, Doctor..._not_ dashing about from place to place here...just doing the daily thing. Though, granted, daily survival _can_ be exciting...like that time when a cavebear tried to lodge with us in our winter home and we weren't able to budge him. Will say that once he was in full hibernation, it was the easiest kill I've ever made. Obvious end to the problem and we needed the meat."

"Kill."

"Yes, but not war, just hunting. Hides, furs, pelts, meat...it must be hunted and killed to do us any good. Still up for it? Cuz I _like _the highly primitive conditions I live in now, just so you know. I like it as much as you like tinkering under the console."

"Hunting."

"Spears or bows, whichever you like. Or you can craft simple things if you want, primitives though, so keep it that way. I think introducing this level to pottery, livestock, gardens and load-bearing axils with wheels at the ends were about the biggest major changes needed for a few generations."

"Yeah, I think so too. Jewelry, then? I can carve, mind the kids maybe?"

"Or the kiln. I can fire things but we still need to find natural glazes than can handle the kiln. I've been trying to find the kinds of sands that would make colored glass as a coating...not working too well, though." She glanced at his expression of amusement. _"What?"_

"_Okaaaay_...yeah, why don't you let _me _do the sciencey bits...I'll get glazes."

"Smartass."

"Yes..._perhaps_...but still, let me to do potting and the glaze hunting."

"Okay, but no leads and no glass yet, except as beads."

"Agreed. Lead is bad for you and caves don't really _need _glass beads yet...but I'll make sure you have some. Well I say _some_, I mean whatever's on the TARDIS. I'm sure there's few large barrels of them. It's amazing the kind of extra junk you get as trade goods sometimes." He sighed..."And then hang onto for many, many lives, sounds like I finally get to get rid of them."

"Trade goods again, but I'll make jewelry from them first. They'll be more valuable that way."

* * *

He watched as she turned the meat a bit to let it cook in another area, reaching over as she straightened to run his fingers through her hair. She froze for a moment, closing her eyes and knew he could feel her trembling under his fingers.

"So. Bondmate. _Will you have me_, Rose Tyler?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I _will_."

"Forever, Rose Tyler. Yes?"

"Forever, Doctor. Yes."

"Good. Very good. Who do we need to talk to, to _formalize_ this?"

"Doctor?"

"Yes?"

"You're gonna _love _the formals that these folks put on for weddings."

He almost groaned because he could hear in her tone, that she...who knew him so very, _very_ well, was _very_ close to laughing again. "I'm sure I will."

* * *

****TBC****


	2. Ceremonial Display

Summary: The Doctor settles in and begins to realize that 'domestic' means different things to different people at different times...funny how he had never really taken a closer look at 'primitives' until Rose decided to become one. He knew better than to educate them past a certain point...he also knew that Rose had already rushed things a bit by bringing in the Wheel a too soon as well as reading, writing and simple math. In a brand new universe less than a quarter century old, Rose had managed to establish nearly ten fixed points, firmly cementing _her _New Earth into a stable existence. Rated T.

**HOME**

The Doctor felt perfectly ridiculous as he _performed_, with his leggings crumpled around his ankles, his hips jutted out as he proved to the roaring, hooting crowd that he was fully _functional_...his face as red as the leaping flames of the ceremonial fire a few feet away, the 'traditional' wedding display that a male must make in order for the formalities to proceed any further. Apparently, it was important to these folk that he prove he was _both _attracted to his intended _and _able to perform..._physically_.

Panting, he glared at the giggling Rose for a few moments: He could not believe he'd just had to do..._that_...been _required _to do it, in fact, in front a crowd of strangers, all whooping encouragement until he'd shot off on the square of specially dyed and embroidered cloth. He'd told them they could not keep his bodily fluids and since they had to be wasted instead of used, they were to be _burnt_. He stuffed himself back inside his leggings, cursed a blue streak for several moments in the lyrical Gallifreyan of his birth, which the ancient priestess took to be some kind of warding spell and tossed it into the hottest part of a ceremonial fire...not a cooking fire, no...one used _specifically _for various rites during the Gathering. Rose was smiling at him as she joined him.

"All that wasted material taken care of?"

"Yes. No wonder you refused to tell me what they wanted until the last minute."

"I told the TARDIS, though: She made _sure _you had the additives you needed in your food yesterday _and _today..."

"_Did she? _I thought _your _presence was why getting specialty foods was _so _easy..." He shook his head. "Whenever you two get your heads together, _look out, world_. _Any _world, _any_where, _any_when and _anyMe_. Tell me, was it enough of a peacock thing for you? I can show off more, if you want me to, but I'd prefer to keep my organs to _just _us, in private, from now on, _if you don't mind."_

He grinned helplessly as she broke out into giggles, running one arm around her waist while she chortled against his chest. "Wait til you learn about the ceremonial _orgies _they hold on some holidays. You don't _have _to partiscipate but if you're still unmated, you'd be strongly _encouraged _to, particularly the unmated males...makes sense to widen the Gene pool, yeah?"

"Thank you for saving me from _that, _wife." He just stared at her grinning face, nodding response. "Yes. Mated now, _no orgies_."

Rose just laughed.

"No wonder Jack turned out that way." He muttered. "Such behavior is in the earliest part of human development. Hell, I think _his _sexual behavior actually counts as being _retro_."

Rose's giggles increased in both volume and intensity. "He's here, you know. West side caverns on Mulberry Ridge. He loves it here."

"He would."

"You and him, all the family I've got, yeah? Wanted you both here...he got here two days ago while you were in the sweatlodge. The unmated females are so happy..."

"Yeeah...I just bet they are."

"And his hopper got stepped on by a mammoth."

"Well, at least _something _good came out of it then."

"I don't think Jack Harkness really minds."

****TBC****


	3. AFPC

**Summary:** So intent on carving jewelry from rough stone that he forgot that these people didn't know what glass was, the Doctor made an 'oopsy' he couldn't take back. Unaware that the curious children he had so absentmindly answered the questions of had experimented until they got it right, the next summer gathering would have a bit of a surprise for Rose's Doctor.

* * *

**A**ccidental **F**ixed **P**oint **C**reation

_**and the results thereof...**_

* * *

Granted, Twelve had become accustomed to the slower, simpler paces that was Rose's World in it's infancy. Also granted, he had begun to show their healers a few techniques that saved lives...and he had, occasionally, when the Timelines permitted, disappeared into the blue box with a terminal patient or with someone who would be crippled _without _his intervention and bring them out whole and well...not everyone, but most. The People were led to believe that the Spirits had to approve the Healing and that he could do nothing if that approval did not come. There was no need to mention Timelines to them, after all.

He also wasn't about to try to explain medical science to stone aged humans: Such folk as he took into the TARDIS were already sedated and he left their belief structure alone as long as it didn't threaten others. If it did, he and Rose gave it a gentle nudge back along the path to Peace.

That didn't mean they wouldn't defend themselves, but it did mean they wouldn't _start _anything. For a Time Lord so used to running everywhere, he'd never realized just how much endurance was needed to walk...when walking was from dusk to dawn and you didn't get to be the one selecting either your route or your destination...the migrating herds made both choices. Weather, the seasons and available grazing or browsing determined where the People went during the summers.

The Doctor _did _manage to sent up a tracker for the TARDIS so she would follow himself and his wife and be within reach at the end of the day. When the camp of hunter-gatherers made their evening stop, the TARDIS shields came up and around the mobile little village...no harm would come to those within it. Not that he or Rose mentioned that to anyone...or why every campsite had a huge, bowl-shaped boulder in the very center of it...or where such boulders came from since they'd not been there before nor were they there afterwards. There was no reason not to let them think it was magic as that assumption was so much safer for the timelines.

* * *

Despite the domestic nature of his new lifestyle, he was surprisingly content with the life he was leading now, he stayed at a comfortable level of 'busy' and was surrounded by people who _cared _about him...but none of this was an excuse for the error he'd just made. Rose's World had just veered almost violently _away _from the parent universe and only the fact they'd already been here when that happened allowed the TARDIS to survive the change. The fact that the timeship was _thriving_ afterward told the Doctor that he was indeed this universe's Doctor...that, and his TARDIS would never again be compatible with the universe of her birth. Not after _that _mistake.

Not paying attention was the culprit, he decided, eying the several grades of eyeglass type lenses of primitive glass and frames made from everything woven reeds to wood, on a hide blanket in the traders section of the Gathering. He vaguely recalled explaining what his glasses were, what they were for, how they were made...continuing that with a lecture on glass...all while carving intricate patterns on semi-precious stones for the jewelry he made...and on which most of his very intense focus was trained at at the time.

Oh yes, inattention _was_ indeed the culprit. His _own_, to be precise...one doesn't give that sort of a lecture to the children of highly skilled crafters in primitive societies unless you _wanted _them to at least give the processes a go. If they succeeded? Instant fixed point.

He sighed, truly, there was no going back now. He tested several lenses and sighed again. The kids had gotten good at grinding various prescriptions of lenses, apparently. He'd seen several folks that had given up the close work of sewing because of failing eyesight that were wearing the clumsy frames and bulky lenses and were sewing again. He knew Rose was going to chew on him some for that if Jack didn't do it first. It wasn't as if he didn't know better, now, was it? Of course, the fact that his wasn't compatible with her birth universe meant that neither were the TARDIS' of his past selves...and that would be driven home to him shortly...along with several other sweeping changes.

* * *

He thought about it and decided it didn't matter as he'd never had any intentions of doing so anyway. But he was about to receive a _rude _shock...

"What the _hell _have you done?" Came a familiar voice...his, actually. _Past _his. Swell. Apparently, he'd pulled his past selves along for the ride. _Lovely_.

"_Inattention_. Forgot who I was talking to, as my hands and most of my concentration were elsewhere. This is the result."

"It's _Fixed_, you idiot." Eleventh him told him. _All_ of me have been pulled to a world where Rose wants nothing to do with me...what? Since when have I been into getting permanent tattoos on my bodies?"

His successor had simply raised his hand showing the tribal tattoo of mating on the back of it. "_Rose knows our name_. She's my mate..._and_ I'm on the slow path. It's just _your _version she avoids. And this is the tattoo given to mated pairs...or groups. The tattoo is unique to each mating. Rose has one just like it and soon, so will all of me."

"You're not serious?" Five spluttered as he approached with the rest of him.

"I am...and I _love_ it. Domestics is fine once you have the right person to share with."

"Oi! I couldn't believe it when she told me all your past ones were here...right back to the first one. I'm going back to the tent, you know which you I don't really want to talk to."

"Rose...this is hurting _him _too...and me as well since _I _can feel it and so can the rest of me." Her Doctor told her, tears in his eyes. "_Make your peace with that me_."

She looked away, trembling. "I've tried to, at least four times, five if you count the last trip. _That _you is unstable and cruel...I'm sorry love, but..._I_ can't. That you won't _let_ me. I've tried, you know I have...and every time I did you..._he_...just..." He pulled her close to himself and saw the very first one of him she had known come up behind her, nodding at himself as that him put his hands on her shoulders. "He hurts me just to have someone to hurt. I can't take anything else from that you."

"Rose, I'm a package deal. You _know _that." Twelve told her softly.

"Then at least don't leave me alone with that one. I love him, but he _hates _me. Everything he's done proves that. He must, why else would he keep abandoning me? Who knows what that you will pull next? And I'm for damned sure not getting in _that _version of Sexy again. I miss that her, but I just can't."

* * *

"What about _mine_?" Came a soft northern burr in her ear as Ten cuddled her as best he could from behind her.

"Yeah." She sighed. "Even if you did regenerate into an utter and complete _arsehole_."

By now, all of the rest of him had gathered round pretty close and every single one glared at the pinstriped him. "What the _hell_ did you do to our Rose?" Six snarled. "Abandoned? Sounds like more than once, too. She's spent time with every single one of us, you know. For her to condemn one of my bodies like _that_...what the _fuck _did you do?"

"We can't stay, you know." Eight reminded Twelve and Rose.

"Sure you can. First, this isn't our universe of origin...we have no history here." The 12th regeneration told them. "This is an alternative one that Rose _deliberately _caused to split off from there. Which means we're all on _her _timeline, not our own...which is how you're all here at the same time without merging. She now either has brothers in law...or a harem. Fortunately, this tribe allows for both. And we have told the shaman what I am and how that can sometimes work."

* * *

"So," Third said slowly, trying to make sense of his new circumstances, "A rather abrupt Fixed point that split every version of me to make two of each and yank one over _here_, then a secondary Fixed point which was our arrival and bonding to Rose, a third Fixed point that bonded us to this universe where our history just began...like, seconds ago, and courtesy of a fourth Fixed point...a new home for us and our 12th as the new first."

"Oi! _No_, I'm still Twelve...but unless I wanted to replace First in the order of In Chargie-ness, **which I do not**, I had to wait until you lot got here. First is in charge until he is not and then the rest of you in turn. The difference is, _here _if one of us needs help from one or more of the others, there are the rest of us to give it. We're ALL first bodies here, see? But the original First Body is First Doctor here and I'm still Twelve cuz here, we're brothers instead of...get it?"

"Oh my giddy aunt." Second squealed as he got it. "How strange...but I can see the implosion of the first timelines of a new Gallfreyan people...for this universe. Let's see if we can avoid turning into people those Council arses, shall we?"

Good, since you've got it, that's all I have to say about it, now if you'll excuse me, Rose is upset and I would like to comfort my..._our_...wife." He shot a glance at Northern, gathered Eight up with his eyes as well and headed the smaller group toward their tent. The rest of them had gathered around Ten and were shoving him into Seventh's TARDIS...apparently wanting a word with him. That he _didn't_ argue was telling.

* * *

"I _don't _hate Rose. How could she believe that? I _adore _her." Tear-filled brown eyes squeezed tightly shut as he tried to understand why she'd said that. "I just wanted her to be _safe_." His voice was nearly a wail.

"So, you left her behind...took everything she had to give, then left her, and you wonder why she thinks _your _me despises her? She loves me, _all _of me, so _much_..._why did you have to hurt her like that?_" Four wanted to know. "She's right, it _was _cruel."

"I didn't _mean_ to be cruel. I just wanted what was best for her and best seemed to be _away_ from me. I didn't want to, hurt like hell to give her to my metacrisis."

"Who, according to elder us, _dumped her_ for someone else within just a few weeks." Six snarled at him. "That world had a version of Sarah Jane...and I don't blame Sarah at all, she's a lovely girl, but the metacrisis was incompatible with Rose and he knew it. A woman who fits that well on the TARDIS will never mate a human male. _Are you stupid?"_

"Well, _yes_...sometimes it almost seems as if my brain isn't fully engaged as it _should _be...the regeneration didn't go well and I had to wake from my post regeneration sleep to fight in Earth's defense, the cycle got interrupted when I had to reform my hand and really, there's a lot of things that have been off ever since. I'm not sure the regeneration process actually completed."

* * *

The other selves paused, looked at each other and finally Seven placed a hand between 11th's clavicles and shoved him toward the corridor. "MedBay, me. Now. We need to fix this you. Fucked up regenerations are not fun and not something you can fix on your own. Four, would you please go and explain to Rose? Other than that one time with Peri and Six, we've never had to deal with healing an abused Companion before, never mind a mate."

"Yes. Of course. As soon as we have the first of the scan and test results back, since convincing her without hardcopy may be impossible. Depending on how much is wrong, poor bastard. Doing his best but not having full access to our mind?" He patted his sobbing self's shoulder and left to do as asked as soon as he had the first results in his hand. "This isn't good. But the rest of us will fix this while I go reassure the ones of us which are focused on Rose."

"We're all _individuals_, now, Four. We aren't an 'us' anymore...just brothers." Second reminded him.

"True. Each of us reset as a First Body...and all of us are still the Doctor. I think we just got a new House...instead of Lungburrow, we are the House of Doctor. I like that better anyway." The Fourth stated firmly as he left Seventh's TARDIS.

The rest of him focused their very much in working order minds on this poor, partially or even mostly regenerated version, though apparently not fully...and prompted his body to complete the process that was far, far too long in coming. The 11th began to dimly glow, as his body began to correct his TNA.

* * *

****TBC****


	4. Life and Living

Summary: The Doctor, in all his many parts, realizes that despite all of his selves _slowly_ transitioning into First Bodies now, none of him are willing to give up Rose. _Her_ status skyrockets when she adds twelve husbands to the one she already has. Eleven finally heals the breech between himself and Rose...and not long afterward, the caves realize she's also quite firmly in charge.

* * *

**Life and Living**

It took a lot of explaining and examples provided by the Doctors, but the priestess and the people _finally _understood that they were not brothers, instead, they were several aspects of the exact same man and with one of his selves mated to Rose, they _all _were. It might have taken longer if Twelve hadn't been fatally injured by a wooly rhino, but he _had _and before long a new Doctor appeared out of the glowfire and he was himself healed. Two for the price of one...

Thirteen stood blinking in confusion at his prior selves, then at the now healed previous version and complained. "Unlimited regenerations? Okay, now...that's just _weird_."

"New universe and it answers to Rose...she refuses to lose _any _of us, ever again...so we can each be a me first and then after the new me is being me, the old ones are each a him and together we are an 'us'." Second reminded him. "Does take a bit to wrap even our minds around it, but it makes sense. New rules, too. see. And Fourteenth us has the twin of the TARDIS that came here first, split our timeline in half, one to go to Amy and the other came here to Rose. But the one that went to Amy has the option to...well...blend with the same self here, when he passes."

"Where's Seven?" Eight suddenly asked, looking around curiously.

"Rose ambushed him." Second grinned. Said something about curing lessons. And skin."

"_Ew_. It's not _that _kind of lesson, mes." Twelve told then. "Hide scraping and working to make usable leather. Very messy, with a _fresh_ hide. It gets in your hair and dries there and under your fingernails and if you forget or aren't paying attention you can give yourself bloody smears on your face when you wipe sweat away." He ticked off the points he was making on his fingers. "And some of me did go with her on a bison hunt this morning so there's going to be hides that have to be cured. _Lots_ of blood vessels and fatty fat that has to be scraped _off...it can spray _or sometimes_ squirt you_ when you do_ that _and then the inner membrane of the hide has to be peeled away...and since the hide is still raw, it's fragile and tears easily at that point so you have to be both patient and _gentle_ until you start adding the rotting, putrefied brain tissue from the bison that used to wear the hide that you're working on and massaging it into the hide to start it curing, to toughen the..." He paused at the grossed out expressions on the younger hims' faces. _"_Well_...you'll get used to it."_

"**_Yuck_**." Four told him distinctly.

* * *

Thirteen raised one silvery eyebrow and started laughing. "Looks like I told Clara the truth, then...I told her I wasn't _her_ boyfriend. I'm married to Rose Tyler in a stone aged era _of her own design_. Using primitive methods to make leather. And hunting with her, apparently. She never did give more than a nod and a wink at impossibilities."

"True...and the strangest bit of all is that while it _is_ utterly domestic, we don't mind." Sixth grinned. His leathers were just as colorful as his signature outfit had been, but it was different and in decent taste. This was because Rose had done all the embroidery on it and the designs sewn onto it with beads and dyed sinew were intended to make him look _good_.

The colors in the sinews and with which she had dyed the base leather, were TARDIS treated to make them both bright and long lasting, but not so long lasting that it would be counted as strange. He was considered a powerful magic user, after all: Having stronger dyes on his clothing made sense to these people. She'd also taken her families leathers and had the nearest TARDIS to her physically 'fix' the pockets. Doctors without pockets that were bigger inside than they should be seemed strange to her and that in turn made her uncomfortable. It was for the same reason she got spare Sonic Screwdrivers from Ten and Twelve and gave them to First and Second.

It was natural for them to ask the older selves what they were. They didn't give them back, but they did study the settings lists the two older bodies gave them, after showing each of the 'babies' how to set them. Neither of the older forms were at all surprised when the next time they pulled out their own, they were a lot more advanced. This only made sense, of _course_ the babies would have tinkered with their new toys...

* * *

"_Best_ part of it is, if one of me gets into trouble, we're part of a community that is supportive of it's members. We're expected to do the same of course, but we're the Doctor. We'd do _that_ anyway. We each have specific areas where each personalities best skills are allowed to develop fully. Second, Eight, Five and myself are Child-Minders. Seven, Twelve and Four are craftsmen, First, Third, and you are Teachers. Nine is one of the community Storytellers...that's an actual calling, here. Ten and Eleven are hunters, mostly because Rose is a hunter and they won't willingly let her out of their sight."

"Especially Ten. You remember that business with the Heart of the TARDIS?" Twelve muttered. "Ten was just a wee _bit_ shocked when he found himself _here_ after I got distracted."

"Yeah. About that...I _was_ going to chew on you pretty hard about that, but all things considered, I can't really say that I'm at all sorry." Ten told him, his Northern accent a bit thick, as he joined himselves. He was damp and in fresh leathers having taken the time to bathe and change. "It was a good hunt. It will provide food for many families this winter." He had no problem with meat hunting...or butchering, for that matter.

"I've meant to ask," Second spoke. "Do we have the TARDISes join shields over the winter quarters starting this year? We found a massive cave that is stable and can hold all of the People. I told the Elders that I would discuss the possibility of a powerful protective magic, but it if turned out to be possible, we could only do it once in a while and over only one cave. The very worst winters would be the ones shielded. Have you _seen_ the old girl's predictions for this upcoming winter?"

"Yeah. That had all of us worried, but if we put all of them into the Dome and have the TARDISes bring up their ground shields until Spring...real spring, as in, the snow is gone and all the late season 'surprise' storms are over, that will do." Five nodded. "Early, extra cold, lots of wet, heavy snow, short and the winds are going to be utterly _vicious_, is my old girl's description of the coming winter. I want those conditions _outside _her shields. _Otherwise_, I'm moving Rose into the TARDIS where she'll be safe _and_ getting the ship to remove the front door...you lot will just have to play stack the TARDIS with mine."

"_Short_ means an early spring, but I think we should encourage the TARDISes to make sure there's enough snow to ensure a _healthy _water table later, but to send the surplus to drier areas further south that actually _need_ the moisture so we can avoid floods at thaw. Droughts and floods are _both_ something I'd really prefer to avoid and messed up migrations isn't something we want to have to deal with later on." Four added.

"Good idea, Four."

* * *

Seventh entered the Blood Spring, this was a specific hot-spring used to clean off any animal blood from hunts, butchering or cleaning hides from yourself or your clothes. It had a constant circulation that kept the water fresh. He grimaced at the feel of drying bison blood and fatty bits on his skin _and in his hair_. Processing hides wasn't his 'skill' but it was something that _everyone_ was required to learn, along with flint knapping..._which was a lot harder than it looked_, and the manufacture of spears, arrows and bows. _Everyone_ had to learn to hunt, set traps for food and fur bearing animals and to do the same for fish. These were all _survival_ skills that had to be known for safety...and that everyone, even everyone of himself, had to prove they knew.

_Everyone_ had to know how to weave nets, for community fish harvesting of the larger species, salmon and sturgeon amongst others. You had to know how to go from _literally _armed with nothing but a spear and a stone knife_,_ naked _and_ hungry to well fed, nicely clothed and fully equipped, on your own _without_ aide. That was one of the rules of the community.

Some of himselves had already passed the Testing...but only the older ones. The last to pass had been Eight and he'd been exhausted when he'd gotten back after the ordeal. His leathers were dyed a blend of several nice shades of green in a camouflage pattern, that had raised the eyebrows of the people and had them grinning. One glance told them these were hunting leathers intended for the forest.

* * *

The grinning was because of the Sharing Rule...if you learned a new thing during your Testing Ordeal, you were _expected _to make sure at least twenty people were taught the new thing so that eventually the new skill or knowledge would pass through the People for the benefit of all. Other discoveries you could keep to yourself and use to your benefit and the benefit of your family or cave, but Ordeal Finds were for the People as a whole. Which was why he'd done it, of course. Only _that_ particular pattern were the People's though. They'd have to trade for the dye formula and if the Doctors or Rose used the dyes in a _different_ pattern later, nobody could use it without permission. That was the rule.

The fact that two days later Rose was using it to essentially tie-dye her leathers in patterns of tiger-stripes and ocelot spots bore this out. The fact she had everyone working on doing the same to hides intended for hunting leathers and footwear, some for themselves and others just hides for trading, just meant that the Doctor Clan was _busy _for while.

* * *

Jack had found himself claiming five women and two like minded men from the Mulberry Ridge cave, Most people called him Hark instead of Harkness and when she learned of it, Rose wondered aloud just why and how that word had become a warning word on _old _Earth...while staring at them in question, from face to face before finally looking up into Eleven's expressive face. She still wasn't really _comfortable_ with him, not after their shared history, but as long as one of his other personalities was nearby, she was relaxed. That was the real reason Ten was never far from her when Eleven was nearby. Twelve was there when Ten wasn't and it didn't take long for Thirteen to pick up on the byplay as Eleven moved a bit of blonde hair from her face and tucked it behind her right ear.

"Tempting to blame it on Jack, I know. But no...that wasn't it." He sighed at her flinch.

He still didn't know how to make Rose understood that he wasn't _ever_ going to hurt her in this body again. It had never occurred to him to apologize. There was a rule about apologies between him and Rose. _Sorries_ were always accepted and the matter that made one needful forgiven and forgotten as soon as the word was said. Eleven had forgotten that he _hadn't _yet. So, Rose thought he wasn't sorry at all...and it terrified her because she didn't understand why he was doing these things to her. She didn't know why he was pretending he wasn't angry at her or why he was punishing her. And all she could really do was wait for the penny to fall.

_Because nobody could hurt you like someone you loved._

* * *

Being a later personality, Thirteen knew what was going and understood _exactly_ why Rose was so skittish. It was unfortunate that Eleven had such poor judgement where Rose was concerned, but she had finally learned that if she _let_ him, he'd hurt her badly and without ever meaning to do anything of the sort.

All of him understood that. Even Eleven understood why she was jittery around him, quite obviously waiting for the next painful blow to her emotions from that him's hand...and just as obviously hurting more from the ones already delivered despite loving him so dearly.

The Thirteenth walked up to her and started the _old_ game. "So..._how do I look?_"

"Um..._distinguished_..." She apparently wasn't playing anymore. "Good hair, strong profile, a little wrinkly but not bad, really. Nothing that will even slow me down, trust me on that. But maybe a bit too stiff and proper...I'll have to fix _that_. Stiff and proper Doctors are...kinda..._weird_."

He almost groaned, he could just imagine what she meant by _that_. Especially when the rest of his selves were grinning at him in such a way. All of them...and deliberately blocking any information that could be useful. Instead, though...stiff and proper? Him? Well, he could start eroding that impression away right _now_.

* * *

He grabbed Eleven by the upper arm an hauled him off out of Rose's earshot, though _not_ beyond the hearing of the rest of their selves.

"Apologize to her for hurting her...every day that passes that you don't, she's just more convinced you're _deliberately _going to do it again...and are just planning how to do it to best effect, you moron." He hissed. "Start with France on a Spaceship..._way to make Rose Tyler feel herself to be expendable, you idiot_. Twelve tried to reassure her, that self apologized, that self and the rest of us after that are fine and she trusts us. She trusts Eight because of the empathy he has...but from Seven down, she wonders and holds herself somewhat away. Five has gone a long way toward calming her fears concerning that body as has Four but Sixth's mouth and Seven's behavior? They don't get the closeness _you _once had because you _damaged _Rose and didn't heal the injury. Why the hell do you think she still sticks to Ten like they were glued at the hip? She knows she can give him everything she has and _he _won't hurt her." He shoved that younger self away so hard Eleven nearly fell...but there was no protest as he recovered his balance, spinning to frantically meet Twelve's eyes.

The sober nod in response of that sought after confirmation left Eleven with only one option. And in an action that was utterly normal for that personality, he didn't even think about what he was doing, he simply picked her up and carried her off...tears streaming down his face as he apologized. Because nobody could hurt you like someone you loved..._**unless **__it was the hurts of someone you loved who __**was **__hurting because __**you **__hurt them._

* * *

He had to fix this and he had to fix it _now_.

He'd left it too long already, decades had passed since the initial wound to Rose's soul and this personality was the only Doctor that _could_. _He _had done the harm, _he _had shattered his Rose..._this _him. _This _him had made her run _away_ from him instead of _to _him. And that single fact, that _truth _broke his hearts.

The others of the Doctor's selves _let_ him scoop her into his arms and carry her off, though...that was the _only_ reason she wasn't fighting him. The need for balance so he didn't drop her made her cling and tears of healing and cleansing from them both did the rest. He just took her to their hearthcave, though. It was a good sized cave in the back of the Dome Cave, big enough for Rose and her Doctors but the rest didn't interrupt them. Eleven needed to do this and needed _privacy_ for it.

"I'm so sorry...I didn't realize I'd never told you that. I thought I had." He folded himself over and around her...and wept into her hair. "No wonder you've been so afraid of me...of what I'd do to you. You thought I was angry with you, didn't you?"

Rose didn't reply, she just nodded slightly and felt him pull her in tighter.

"I'm _not_, I wasn't. _Never was_. Never intended to hurt...to _harm_ you. I'm _so_, so **sorry**." This time it wasn't half as much guilt as it was the kind of pain you get when you've hurt a loved one..._especially an innocent_. This Doctor was in no danger of repeating the error. The memory of how this revelation _felt_ would guard him from such a thing in the future.

* * *

Outside the Dome Cave, watching over the People coming from their territorial caves and bringing all they owned with them to the Dome, where the worst winter would not touch them, the rest of the personalities of the Doctor spoke quietly, while the Eldest explained the problems Eleven had brought on that him...and the kind of emotional damage that had been done to their shared wife in the process.

Twelves looked over at Ten. "I'm getting the memories of what I'm doing in the cave now...we'll be fine, us and Rose. I forgot to tell her I was sorry, in that body. She's been waiting decades to see what else that us had in mind to use to hurt her because she thought he meant to. She loves us _so_ much and it's terrified her."

"Still gonna kick pretty boy's ass." Ten told himself bluntly.

"And we'll _let _you as long as you don't come after us older ones."

_**"Deal."**_

* * *

Rose was not amused four days later when Eleven and Ten came in together, Ten's knuckles were scraped raw and he was smirking. Eleven was black and blue from forehead to gut.

_"Doctors..."_

"He had it comin'."

"I _deserved_ it, Rose. Let it go."

_"Doctors..."_

She scowled at the rest. "Did the rest of you..."

"He _did_ have it coming." First told her gruffly.

"True, I _did_." Thirteen confirmed.

She put them to work on the worst jobs in the Dome for the next two weeks. Latrine duty wasn't fun but it was a walk in the park next to working the fresh hides into leather and making soap, both of which were a misery with his enhanced physical senses, especially smell, taste and sight, since the fumes kept him stopped up, able to taste nothing but soap and his eyes encrusted when they weren't watering from the mixing of the fat and warm water that made lye soap...and it made her point.

* * *

"_No self harm._ We clear? If you _really_ feel you need to be punished to the point you _want _to be miserable, let me know. I'll take care of you. I _always_ take care of you."

"Yes, Rose." Eyes and noses red and streaming from the two days of soap manufacture and the rank fumes that were a by-product of the process, had made sure they were half-blind and their sinuses were screaming. Ten and Eleven were highly unlikely to wish to repeat it.

The rest of the People watched this in silence, though several of the women were smirking. Husband training was the same all over, even at the upper levels of rank.

* * *

~TBC~


End file.
